Djokovic walked back into the St. Jakobshalle this week carrying one goal: enough wins to secure the final place at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. The 39-year-old Serb came through Ugo Humbert on Wednesday in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in a match that pushed close to two and a half hours and left him talking about damage control rather than clean tennis.

“I was under attack from the first point, to be honest. I had to weather the storm,” Djokovic told reporters after the match.

The reward is a last-16 meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday for a place in the quarterfinals. Djokovic owns an 8-0 career head-to-head over the German, with 19 of 20 sets in his column.

Borges’ upset reshaped the draw

Portugal’s Nuno Borges turned the half of the draw Djokovic was eyeing on its head. He lost the first set 1-6 to ninth seed Casper Ruud, then flipped the match to win 6-3, 6-4 and reach the quarterfinals.

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That removes a seeded landmine from Djokovic’s path, but it also sets up a probable meeting between the two men in the next round. Borges is already through and waiting for the winner of Djokovic-Struff.

The Toronto meeting between Borges and Ruud in July 2025 went to the Norwegian in straight sets, according to The Sports Encounter. Basel flipped that script on an indoor hard court, where Ruud’s game typically travels less well.

Turin maths with Sinner out

The qualification picture tilted when Jannik Sinner, second on the season Race, sat out for the remainder of the 2026 season with a knee problem. One of the eight invitations to Turin is effectively up for grabs.

After the Humbert win, Djokovic climbed back to ninth in the Live Race to Turin on 2,890 points, inside the live top 10 but still a place below the qualifying cutoff. He trails Rafael Jódar in eighth by 294 points and leads Alex de Minaur by 10. The Paris Masters next week is the last tournament of the Race, so what he does in Basel this weekend is almost all he has left.

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Tennis Majors noted he will likely need to reach the final here to lock up qualification.

Borges’ breakout week

Borges came into Basel outside the top 40, and his tour-level record going into the week was shy of 100 career wins. The upset over Ruud sent him into only his second ATP 500 quarterfinal, and he now sits one win from a semifinal on indoor hard courts, a surface where he has not previously gone this deep.

Turin is out of reach for Borges this year, but Basel is not.

The men’s final at Swiss Indoors Basel is scheduled for Sunday, November 1. Three more rounds separate the field from that trophy, starting with Djokovic-Struff on centre court Thursday night.

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